Longest serving FA cup get's million pound valuation

The longest-serving FA Cup trophy in the competition's history has been valued at more than £1 million on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow, making it the highest-valued object ever to appear on the show.

The football trophy, which was the third cup to be used after the 1872 original, was valued by silver expert and football aficionado Alastair Dickenson.

The valuation, made at the Royal Hall in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, surpasses the value of the previous holder, a model of Sir Antony Gormley's Angel of the North sculpture, which was valued at £1 million.

Brought in by BBC Sport's Gabby Logan and Leeds United's former manager and 1972 FA Cup winner Eddie Gray, the item received the highest valuation ever given by Dickenson during his 20 years on the programme.

Presenter Fiona Bruce said that the trophy - which was created in 1911 by Fattorini and Sons, Italian immigrants who came to Britain in the late 19th century - has a "very special place in the hearts of English football fans".

Explaining the significance of the Cup, Gabby Logan revealed that the trophy had enjoyed one of the longest tenures of any sporting trophy, having been used for 81 years, until it was finally replaced in 1992.

Despite its value, Alastair Dickenson claimed the trophy's embellishment suggested that it had not been created to be a football trophy, and was more likely designed as a "wine or champagne cooler".

"Now I may be banned from every football ground in the country for saying this, but I suspect that this may have been an off-the-shelf piece, that it may not be specifically made," he said.

"I think that because it has all these grapes and vines on it, it might have been a wine or champagne cooler.

"The hardest thing of all about this is putting a value on it. This is, alongside the Wimbledon trophy, the most famous cup in the country.

"I think, quite comfortably, this has got to be worth well over £1 million - the highest ever value I have given on Antiques Roadshow."